BY MACAYLA COOK
Staff Reporter
This article will be published in The Review’s special magazine issue, set to be available on campus starting the week of April 24.
Ratio. To students here at the university, this five-letter word means the difference between sitting in a dorm all night and partying the night away. The ratio system is employed by fraternities to limit party attendance, admitting large amounts of girls and very few men, if any. This system, based mainly on gender expression, has been a staple for fraternities at the university for as long as any student can remember, but how do the students really feel about it?
Colby Bushweller, a freshman finance major and a member of the university’s chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon, says that the ratio system is in place for a variety of reasons.
“It’s more about a brotherhood,” Bushweller says. “You can’t just let random people into a party, you don’t know who they are. They could do something wrong and you don’t want liability on you, so we make sure it’s only our brothers that are at the parties.”
However, many female students seem to think that the ratio system is far less about preserving safety and far more about fraternity brothers having options at parties.
“It makes me feel icky inside because it feels like they’re just trying to get as many girls into the party as possible so that they have their pick of all the girls they could possibly want, even though that’s obviously not okay,” Megan Zalinkanskas, a freshman political science major, says.
The sentiment that fraternities view parties as an opportunity to meet women was a popular one. An informal survey of 71 female university students conducted by The Review found that 74.3% of those surveyed said the ratio system made them uncomfortable to some degree.
“Last year, one of my friends tried to get in [to a fraternity party] and he was like, ‘Oh, I know people in there,’ but they still told him he couldn’t come in,” Reese Miller, a junior human physiology major, says. “And he was even walking in making the claim that ‘well, I’m coming in with five girls, so you guys get five girls plus one of me,’ and I was kind of like, ‘Hm, that makes me feel nice about myself.’ He was kind of using me to try to get in but then still couldn’t get in.”
In addition to concerns about the ratio system, many female students also expressed wariness about the values of fraternities.
“I think it’s very much a boys’ club when you’re at these frat parties,” Zalinkanskas says. “Like, they’re all there, they just come up and talk to you and most of the time they’re friendly, but sometimes things can get a little out of hand. Sometimes, they go a little overboard.”
Despite these concerns, fraternities state that they care about women’s safety and understand the importance of respecting women.
After an incident involving gender-based violence last year, the brothers of Kappa Delta Rho posted on their Instagram, “The men of the Alpha Beta chapter of the national fraternity of Kappa Delta Rho at the University of Delaware condemn domestic violence.”
“We have three rules and one of them is [to] respect women,” Bushweller says of Sigma Phi Epsilon. “It’s our number one rule. For us, we are very keyed into respecting women, making sure they feel comfortable and all that stuff.”
Yet, many fraternities at the university have also dealt with allegations of violence against women recently, like the incident with a former member of Kappa Delta Rho last school year. This has led some women to point out that while the ratio treats men unfairly, they do feel safer in a room full of mostly women.
“From a sorority’s perspective, if we were to have a party and we did the other way around where there were way more guys than there were girls, I would feel so unsafe,” Miller, a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, says. “I think that sometimes, that’s why I go out to frat parties. It’s because there are a lot of girls there, so I know if I’m having an issue, I can go to another girl.”
While the ratio system has its pros and cons, and reactions to it are mixed, the system seems to be here to stay. The flocks of women entering fraternity houses each weekend prove that despite its flaws, the ratio is effective.
“It’s interesting because I know a lot of people that are like, ‘The ratio is stupid, why can’t our guy friends come in?’ but still, all of us go,” Miller says. “We still go to the frats, so why are we doing this? We see the way that we’re being treated, and some frat guys will just jump from girl to girl, but we still show up every time. Why are we still showing up?”
